Here’s the thing about me: I’m delusional enough to believe that I can do whatever I want to if I just put effort into it. That’s how I co-launched a bicoastal professional development conference for gender marginalized writers that ran for three years and attracted speakers like Lisa Kudrow, Gina Prince Bythewood, and Jill Abrasion. It’s how I conned my way into hosting a monthly comedy show at Brooklyn’s Union Hall*, despite having absolutely no background in comedy. It’s how I launched a semi-successful porn site that attracted some prominent and well-placed fans when I was just 19.
And it’s why this newsletter exists. I simply believed that I had a unique perspective on bisexuality, and that people needed to hear it, and I created this newsletter and now there are nearly 1400** of you who get it in your inbox. Delusions of grandeur: they work!
It’s that same mindset that has me convinced that, if I really put my mind to it, I can somehow single-handedly spur a bisexual revolution and bring attention to bi issues and biphobia in a way that no one else ever has been able to before. Is that an insane thing to believe? Absolutely! But sane beliefs rarely lead to major social change.
But: although I might be delusional enough to believe I can spur a bisexual revolution, I’m not delusional enough to believe I can carry it out all by my lonesome. Collective change requires collective action, you know? And for all my self-importance, I’m still very much aware of my limitations. I’m a theorist, a writer, a person who can analyze complex frameworks and break them down in legible ways***. I am not, alas, a political organizer or mega star with a massive platform or… I don’t know, what are the other kinds of people who are crucial to turning some ideas into a mass movement? The fact that I don’t even fully know is kind of my point here.
I am not those things. But maybe you are.
I think there needs to be a Bisexual Revolution™️ — something that draws attention to our plight, something that pushes past the incorrect ideas that frame us as a lesser form of gay rather than an entirely separate kind of person. I think there needs to be a sustained effort to get bisexual welfare — the higher rates of poverty and abuse, the poor mental and physical health — onto the docket as an urgent issue. I think there needs to be pressure to get bisexual people into positions of power — and to get closeted bisexuals who are already in power to come out. I think bisexuality needs to be normalized, and in achieving that, hopefully we can normalize not giving a shit about the gender of someone’s partner, or whether they’re partnered at all. Hopefully bi visibility can lead to a true breakthrough of the It’s None Of Your Business If I Do platform, which is of course the real end goal.
I would love to pull that off, I admit it. But for all my delusions, I know that I am simply one cog in the great wheel of change; I know that I am, at best, someone who hopes her ideas and writing can spur other people to do the organizing that I am just not cut out for. It has to be possible, right? It has to be something one of you knows how to do, right?
And I mean, if it is… feel free to shoot me an email? There is a revolution coming, I can feel it. Let’s make sure it happens the right way.
* Trust me, this is a coveted thing
** I feel like it could be more people but here’s the thing, one thing I am very bad at is the kind of hustling you need to do to build your newsletter audience in rapid fashion.
*** My other major skill is providing emotional support.
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